Sales letter have the potential to not only communicate the offer but also create interest and desire for the consumer if done in the right manner.
Let us go through some basic tricks which are required in an effective sales letter:
1. Build trust. Besides the benefit billed at the letter's opening, you can bolster interest and inject trust by adding high-profile endorsements from associates or former clients.
2. Get to bona fides, quick. You need to establish credibility and be believable by the second paragraph. This is where you explain who you are, why you are so cool (or smart or cheap or special or useful) and what you have to offer. How you package that information, of course, varies with your targets and your products.
Some options:
- List a case study
- Describe a success story
- Outline key benefits of your product (besides the first one)
- Define a problem and how you solved it for a client (don't name names)
Avoid being long-winded or boring in this "credentials" section but be unique & do not just offer some generalized statement.
3. Make it memorable. One of the advantages of a sales letter is that prospects can tuck it away for later action. We suggest you include reasons for your customers to spend more time with the letter and therefore more time considering your offer. For example, an ICICI Prudential Life executive can include tips for safe lifestyle for diabetics along with a targeted letter to this particular segment.
4. Emphasize on visual impact. Design your document for visual impact. Also make it easy to navigate so your reader reaches for it first-ahead of the competitor.
Time spent on the aesthetics will add to the impact, especially to a probable insurance policy consumer who may need to first get attracted before getting educated for the need of insurance cover in his life.
5. Include a call to action. Inform the reader about what he or she should do next. An example is: 'Please call me on my cell phone (0983*******) before Friday, the 28th. Or, say you'll follow up with a phone call or more material. Then, of course, make sure you do.
6. Resist "Mail Merge." Despite the ease and speed with which technology can "find and replace" in electronic documents, do not succumb to the temptation of form letters. The best sales letters, especially when dealing with your own current list, are quite individualized.
Tap your database for information about a customer's sales history and preferences. Then send specialized letters whenever it's appropriate.
7. Forge connections. Similarly, do not get caught up in pushing services or products. You want to develop a long-term relationship with the customer, not pressure him into one discounted sale. Use your letter to investigate whether you can solve customer problems or meet his needs. Try to build a relationship that will last into the future. This is most critical in a business like life insurance wherein not the individual customer’s need evolve with time. A healthy relationship will also enable the sales professional to tap his customer’s network. In a nutshell, keep in touch through regular sales communication which does not sound like one!
8. Test. Test. Test. When you are planning a bulk mailing, in contrast to a selected best-customer target, send out a few versions of the sales letter to small groups of targets. Then understand the feedback, take necessary action and move ahead.
9. Hit the right notes. Your letter should sound like you. If your style is casual and informal, you don't want to create a stiff pitch letter, filled with bizspeak and corporate jargon. Match your letter to the way you do business.
11. One last tip: Before sending out the letters, calculate the highest possible response you can handle. Make sure the volume of your mail drop correlates to that expected response. You will not want to create the perfect pitch and then not be able to make justice to all the requests coming in.
